History of African Rifts

I started in the late 80`s keeping cold water fish in a 12" x 10" x 8" tank which I then changed for a 24" x 12" x 12". This tank was quickly changed to a 48" x 18" x 15" and was home to some very nice south american cichlids. I then decided to keep the larger central americans so I had to chance to a larger tank. I then had a 72" x 18" x 15" and kept some very nice central americans like Synspilum and Bifasiatum. I was soon introduced to malawi cichlids from somebody whom had been keeping them for many years.

My lovely central american setup was quickly replaced by a 72" x 24" x 18" tank and was alive with malawi cichlids that gave me hours of entertainment for a few years. Unfortunatly this tank had to be closed down due to a house move so I had a brief break. I then started up again with a 36" x 18" x 15", then changed this for a 48" x 18" x 15" as well as having various baby tanks on the go as there was always an expecting mum. However this was not good enough as I wanted to keep even more malawi cichlids so I then swapped the 48" x 18" x 15" for a 84" x 24" x 18" tank which on the stand stood nearly 6 foot tall.

My love of malawi cichlids is great but I also needed space in the living room too and this setup was dominating it so I decided to settle for something abit smaller. My next tank was the 5 foot Juwel. This tank ran happily for 3 years until finally I decided that it was now to small for the open swimming family of malawi cichlids that I was keeping, so this was closed down and all the fish were seperated and re-homed except for the few that I was keeping. I then set up another 72" x 24" x 18" tank for the open swimming haps but just 2 years later a change in family circumstances left me with no choice but to close this tank.

I no longer have time or space for large tanks but being the fish lover that I am I could not give up the hobby completely. I have bred many different Malawi cichlids over the years, right from the small Mbuna family up to my all time favourite fish, Aristochromis Christyi. My old 72" x 24" x 18" Malawi Hap tank has now been replaced with a smaller 42" x 18" x 18" single species victorian tank.

The African Rifts website was first started in 2002 as a hobby. All of the photos available in the photo index are reproduced by permission except a small handfull which have no copyright information.

African Rifts /history.html